SANCTIONS PLACED FOR GAMES V COLERAINE AND LARNE: Please note that due to the restrictions placed on Linfield for our matches against Coleraine and Larne there will be an enhanced search and ticket check before approaching the turnstile areas. All Member and Season tickets may be checked and no spectators will be admitted without a current Member or Season ticket. Linfield ask for your understanding and assistance at this very trying time for our Club. The stewards are enforcing these stringent measures to reduce the risk of further sanctions on Linfield please support them. Thank you. Linfield have confirmed that they will challenge what they regard as “the excessive nature” of the sanctions imposed on the club by the Irish FA. The Blues were informed on Friday that they must play two Irish Premiership matches without home fans at Windsor Park as a result of spectator misconduct during a match at Coleraine. The south Belfast club had a suspended one-game stadium ban for fans in Windsor Park’s West Stand from their Boxing Day game against Glentoran and that has now been triggered. It means the West Stand will be closed for Linfield’s home fixture against Newry City on 16 March. The full stadium ban applies to their first two home post-split fixtures. Linfield were also fined £3,000. Linfield hit with stadium ban for spectator misconduct in Coleraine game Sanctions ‘exceptionally punitive’ The additional two-match full stadium ban was imposed by the IFA’s Disciplinary Committee following incidents during Linfield’s game against Coleraine at the Ballycastle Road Showgrounds on 16 February. There was a delay to the start of the second half as players and officials waited for smoke from a number of flares set off by Linfield supporters to clear. “While we do not dispute what occurred at Coleraine, or the seriousness of those offences, the club has raised a challenge with regard to the excessive nature of the sanctions imposed on this occasion,” read a statement released by Linfield on Saturday. “It is our very strong view that the exceptionally punitive nature of the two-match home stadium ban is deeply unfair to the vast majority of our supporters who find this continuing misbehaviour of a small number of misguided individuals to be as reprehensible as we do. “We also believe that imposing a punishment of this nature at such a key stage of the league season has serious implications for the sporting integrity of the competition.” ‘Blue Unity not welcome at Windsor Park’ The Linfield statement singled out a group who call themselves “Blue Unity” as the “root cause of this serious problem”. “The club has faced a considerable number of disciplinary charges as a result of this group’s continuing misbehaviour over the last few seasons that has led to significant financial penalties, tens of thousands of pounds which could otherwise have been invested in our team. “Various representatives from the club have engaged with this group since its formation and sought to guide them in terms of acceptable behaviours which can benefit the team and the club. “No-one can say, however, that repeat criminality, the use of illegal pyrotechnics, and foul discriminatory chants and songs are in any way positive or encouraging. Those who seem to be advising this group and writing their statements for them might do well to bear that in mind. This is neither supporting the team nor “the regime”. “Blue Unity are not welcome at Windsor Park or at any away games. They do not represent Linfield Football Club and our proud traditions of sportsmanship and fair play. “We will no longer attempt to engage with them on any basis. We have worked with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and spent in the region of £100,000 each season on private security costs. That has not worked. “We have constructed social media campaigns, video messaging and asked restorative justice practitioners to intervene. That has not worked. We will continue to work closely with the PSNI to identify those involved in this reprehensible behaviour and hopefully prosecutions and lifetime football bans will follow.”